Good article, Juan, and one that the American Public would do well to read and absorb. The state of the states in the ME is deplorable. The SHAM of "democracy" is being used as a PR move to make brutal regimes and discord look legit,..which is not. We in the West would do well to recognize the reality that most, if not all these countries are not up to difficult task of governing by a democracy. Jefferson said that a free and democratic system of government takes a moral and virtuous society along with enlightened and tolerant minds. Given all the ancient tribal, religious and ethnic issues that come into play all throughout the ME region, it seems iffy at best that the democratic process will work at this point in time. That begs the question then," What is the alternative?". The answer to that question is equally difficult and depressing. Dictatorships, benign or not, or Theocracies, run by religious zealots or down right terrorist groups like Al Queda, are also not the answer if the people of the region are to enjoy personal freedoms, opportunities for prosperity and any possibility of respect for basic human rights. I'm not sure at this point what WILL work, however, if the West ever is going to have any semblance of peace ourselves, we must find and support solutions to the issues that exist. Constant war and saber rattling is not going to help us much. We might achieve "quiet", however we will never have "peace",..and to two are quite different from each other. We really need to listen more, absorb more of the cultural sensitives and proclivities of the nations that make up the ME, rather try and impose our brand of "democracy" on people that are not really ready for such a system.

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